Training Peer Leaders

College Summit provides peer leader training during the summer at workshops held on local college campuses. The workshop provides:

  • A concentrated college application experience and training thus influencing their confidence and desire to attend college
  • A support group for the students, many of whom have the potential to be the first in their families to attend college.
  • Training on College Summit’s online tool, which provides a range of college access tools that help students complete and submit their applications electronically and gather valuable information about financial aid and scholarships.
  • Financial aid information and practice making their case for recieving aid.
  • Guidance in writing a college essay that demonstrates each student’s personal triumphs.
  • A one-on-one meeting with a professional college counselor to provide expert insight into specific college options, enabling students to pursue educational goals tailored to their career aspirations.
  • Group “Rap Sessions” in which students discuss strategies to overcome adversity, improve their confidence, accomplish personal goals, and hone self-advocacy skills.
  • Role models in the form of College Summit alumni who are currently enrolled in college.
  • Peer leadership training so students can bring their newfound skills back to their classrooms as “Peer Leaders” and help foster a culture that encourages college attendance.

 

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The Students' Own Words
In Their Words is a collection of some of the best student essays from our first ten years.

The College Summit strategy was born from a desire to stop expecting first-generation and low-income students to do what middle-class students can’t do: manage their own way through the college admissions process alone.

"It seemed to me that it took two kinds of adults to help students enroll in college: the expert resource person, usually the school counselor; and the college-experienced adult who manages each student through the process face-to-face, usually a college-experienced parent. With few college-experienced parents available, counselors are asked to take on the impossible task of providing expert resources, and directly managing the process for hundreds of students. Schools serving significant numbers of low-income first-generation students faced an enormous challenge: without someone to manage the process along with the student, how could they expect to send more students to college?"

J.B. Schramm, College Summit Founder and CEO